


Stories in the Stars

by AnnaofAza



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Camping, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-05-09 07:34:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5531168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaofAza/pseuds/AnnaofAza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry takes the Unwin siblings camping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stories in the Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elletromil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elletromil/gifts).



> For elle, who asked for "Hartwin + Daisy camping, Harry teaching the siblings constellations, and Eggsy coming up with his own stories about the stars and their friends and Daisy." Happy holidays, and I hope you like it!

“Are you two cold?” Harry asks, for the thirtieth time.

“We’re fine, Harry!” Eggsy laughs, also for the thirtieth time. He’s bundled up in a warm coat and wool cap—and on his lap, Daisy’s wrapped in so many clothes that she resembles Eggsy’s hamper than a kid. Her mouth and chubby fingers are sticky with melted chocolate and marshmallows; Harry built a fire earlier that night, but the embers are now cooling down to soft oranges and yellows.

Harry’s wearing a soft grey cardigan with jeans and rough-worn boots, not his uniform from the observatory—dark blue, tailored slacks and a white button-up shirt with a vest that managed to look surprisingly sexy.

Eggsy remembers clutching Daisy’s hand in the dark planetarium, both of their heads thrown back at the whir of stars and planets and galaxies lit up on the domed ceiling. Daisy had whispered, “look, look, look,” pointing up and asking Eggsy to read the descriptions displayed on placards around the room. The planets above spun slowly, and the galaxies looked so silvery and vast that Eggsy felt very, very small, standing and staring with only his sister’s hand in his to keep him tethered to the ground.

It had been Harry who’d come up to them, bending down to ask Daisy if she enjoyed it, and when Daisy eagerly nodded and began asking him rapid fire questions, Eggsy’s heart felt like melting butter over toast when Harry smiled, easily answered all of her questions, and offered to give them a tour.

Halfway through, Eggsy realized it was Harry’s break, and when he tried to protest, Harry only waved him off with “I love to share knowledge with people who are eager to learn.” Normally, that would sound as pretentious as fuck, but the look in Harry’s soft, brown eyes was sincere.

Eggsy hadn’t wanted to be one of those guys who assumed people who were friendly on the clock were interested in a paying customer, so he hadn’t made his move until Harry hesitantly asked about having a picnic on the observatory grounds. A picnic turned into another, then five, then dinner, then a kiss underneath the stars.

“Eggsy!” Daisy suddenly exclaims, just as he’s thinking about recreating that moment. “Look, look, what’s that star over there?”

Eggsy squints. Truth be told, he can’t tell one star from the other, except this one looks very bright. “Uh…”

“That’s actually Venus.” Harry smiles down at her. “A planet, the Roman name of the goddess of love.”

In the dark, Eggsy feels his face heat up.

“There’s a lovely app—“ Harry pulls out his phone and fiddles with it, before holding it up, as if he’s about to take a selfie. But instead of his very handsome face, there’s image of the night sky trembling with the degree numbers changing at the corner of the screen, then focusing on the stars. Names appear, lines connect between the stars, and with a light tap on a specific one, a small description pops up. “See, look, here’s the North Star. But you can find it by finding this corner of the Big Dipper, or the—“

“Ursa Major,” Daisy finishes, with a grin. She then points at what looks like a waterfall of stars. “Is that the Milky Way?”

“Yes, very good!” Harry smiles, and raises his hand for a high five. Giggling, Daisy obliges, and Eggsy mock-frowns. “None for me?” he complains, and his sister rolls her eyes before offering a raised open palm.

Harry nods. “That’s what the Chinese call the Silver Sea,” he says.

Daisy gasps at the name. “Oooh…why?”

“Well.” Harry then sits up, voice careful and sure, as if he’s giving them another tour. “There was a cowherd and weaving maid, and the weaving maid was a daughter of a god. But she lived on Earth, and was famous for her weaving, like Athena—“

“Goddess of wisdom and battle strategy,” Daisy interjects, and Eggsy grins. He’s been reading _Percy Jackson_ with her, and Annabeth’s her favorite.

“Yes,” Harry replies, looking pleased. “Yes, like Athena. But the cowherd was a mortal, and one night—“ he stops, glancing at Eggsy. “Perhaps this isn’t the best…story to tell a child.”

Daisy protests, “You can’t stop there!”

“What happens, Harry?” Eggsy asks, and Harry leans in and whispers the next part in his ear. Eggsy gently covers Daisy’s ears, then nods, trying to listen instead of focusing on Harry’s warm breath in his ear. “Oh…that’s not as bad I was expecting, but…well, maybe tell it differently.”

“There is another version,” Harry whispers back, then sits back on his heels, thinking. Looking at the two expectant faces, Harry begins again: “Well. Ah…the weaving girl—a princess, the seventh daughter, very sheltered—wanted to live on Earth, so she ran away from home and met the cowherd.”

“And they fell in love,” Daisy immediately says.

“Yes.” Harry shares a look with Eggsy, and their hands come together and entwine. “Yes. They fell in love.” Harry’s thumb begins to caress Eggsy’s knuckles, slowly moving back and forth. “But the princess’s parents were worried about their daughter, and one day, her mother happened to look down from the heavens towards the earth and saw the two living together in a small house on a hill. She saw her daughter, no longer a princess, but as the wife of a common mortal.” Harry sighs, the same way he does when one of the romantic movies they see on Saturday nights turns out very badly. Eggsy almost asks if he should pass Harry a tissue. “Her mother was angry. She wanted her daughter to come back, so she told her to either come home or….watch her husband be killed.”

Eggsy and Daisy gasp in unison. “But why?” Daisy asks, distressed. “They were happy, weren’t they?”

“Yes, but…” Harry struggles, before saying, “some people even now don’t like it if a couple is…different. For the princess’s mother, she didn’t like that her daughter was with a poor, ordinary boy, and that blinded her to how happy the two were. So, her daughter went back home to save his life, then, the mother took a hairpin and carved a river into the sky.”

“The Silver Sea,” Eggsy now says.

“The Silver Sea,” Harry repeats. “On one side was the weaving maid, and on the other was the cowherd—never to touch, never to meet, until the seventh day of the seventh month of the year. Magpies, who took pity on them, formed a bridge over the stars, and the two could meet.” Harry then points to the sky. “There she is—the Vega—and the cowherd—Altair. One of the two most famous lovers in Chinese folklore.”

“Like Romeo and Juliet?” Eggsy asks, wrinkling his nose at the memory of reading that play in secondary.

Daisy sighs. “But that’s so sad!” She tugs on Eggsy’s arm. “Tell me a happier story, Eggsy!”

Harry puts his hand over his heart, mocking his rejection, and Eggsy laughs. “I don’t know any official ones, not like Harry,” he admits.

“Then make something up!” his sister protests.

Eggsy closes his eyes, thinking, then looks up at the stars. He holds out a hand and gestures towards Harry’s phone. “May I?” Harry passes him the phone, and Eggsy randomly passes it over a few stars before getting an idea. “All right…once upon a time, there was a girl named Daisy. She wanted to be an astronaut—“ Here, his sister nods vigorously, “And one day—one _night_ —she looked up at the stars. And one of them spoke back.”

“Aquila,” Eggsy continues, pointing the phone at the sky, and Daisy gasps in delight when a lopsided triangle—the eagle, according to the app—appears. “The eagle asked her if she wanted to meet the stars, and she said yes, of course. So Aquila bowed his neck and told her to climb aboard.” Daisy stares at the sky, transfixed, as if she can see herself soaring amongst the stars on the back of a silvery eagle. “Daisy flew around all night, and she got to meet Aquilla’s friends.”

Eggsy moves the phone, names popping up on the more famous stars, and he keeps talking: “There was—there was the crab, Cancer, who took her to dip her toes in the Silver Sea, and the dog, Sirius, who raced her through the sky.”

“Like JB?” Daisy asks, and Eggsy grins, recalling his little pug back at the flat.

“Yeah, like JB. She also got to see Leo, the lion, and Capricornus, the goat. Leo and Daisy got into a screaming contest, which Daisy won—“ his sister laughs. “And Capricornus showed her how to hop on the stars like stairs without wobbling.” Eggsy keeps talking, aware of Harry’s smile and Daisy’s eager eyes. “Daisy got to meet heroes, too, like Pegasus and Perseus—“ Daisy claps her hands. “Perseus showed her how to wield a sword and fight, but he also warned her that she had to leave before the sun rose. If the sun rose, Daisy would be trapped in the skies, and she wouldn’t see her mum and brother and his—his…Harry.”

Harry squeezes Eggsy’s hand. For a long time, they simply smile at each other under the stars, until Daisy clears her throat. “Then what happens?”

“Perseus offered her a ride on Pegasus, who flew her down to Earth. There, she waved goodbye to her friend and ran towards home.” Eggsy pauses. “The end,” he finally says. “Not as good as Harry’s, but—“

“I loved it!” Daisy proclaims. “More?”

Eggsy glances down at the watch on Harry’s wrist. “It’s late, Daisy. You should be in bed; Mum would have my hide if she knew you were up this late.”

“But next time?”

Eggsy kisses her on the forehead. “Next time.” He ushers her into the tent, making sure his sister gets into her sleeping bag. She does—although she blows a raspberry at her big brother for making her go to bed—and closes her eyes. Eggsy slips back outside, where Harry’s putting out the fire, and winds arms around his waist from behind.

“Your story was lovely,” Harry says, without turning back around.

Smiling softly, Eggsy nuzzles the back of Harry’s neck with the tip of his nose. “Not as good as yours.”

“It wasn’t a good story—well, it _is,_ but I didn’t tell it very well. There was also an ox, with the cowherd, and—“

Eggsy laughs and turns Harry around to kiss him on the mouth to interrupt Harry’s stuttering. “Harry, you can tell it again tomorrow if you like, when Daisy’s awake.”

Harry smiles at him, with unmistakable fondness. “I can tell you something else.”

“Another story?”

Harry leans in, lips over Eggsy’s. “That I love you,” he whispers, and closes the distance.


End file.
